Accenture has long been seen as a leader in knowledge management, having received awards for many years. Over the years though, islands of knowledge have developed throughout the organization and the delivery infrastructure has become progressively more expensive. In 2004, the global knowledge management lead has been given the mandate to lead a revitalization of knowledge management. This case outlines governance challenges in the global firm, the transition to a new IT infrastructure and the strategic challenges and opportunities facing knowledge management within Accenture.

R.J. Thompson Data Systems sells, implements and maintains management information systems. The president of the company receives a call from a potential client to demonstrate a system that they had rejected earlier. The company would benefit from a large sale, however, the president reflects on the experience from the last presentation to this company; R.J. Thompson Data Systems spent considerable time preparing the presentation, only to be treated poorly and to have the offer rejected. He must decide if he should rally the team again.

Founded in 1998, Patagon.com is a pioneer in Latin American Internet-based financial services. The substantial changes in and growth of its business and operations had placed significant demands on the company's administrative, operational, technological and staffing resources. The rapid growth has strained its ability to adequately integrate the companies it is acquiring. The challenge for the management team is to integrate the confederation of country-specific organizations while maintaining the agility and responsiveness of a small firm - and at the same time, develop management systems and enterprise design that would handle the growing complexity.

The commercial eProducts Manager at Shell Canada has to determine how to improve the adoption and utilization of their eCommerce channel. eStore had been developed for the fuel and lubricants market as a pilot test of how Shell might communicate with its customers electronically, thus reducing costs. While eStore had been in place for a year, and many customers had signed up, utilization was low. A consulting firm has made recommendations about the technical issues that might be driving low utilization; the commercial eProducts Manager has to consider whether the problems are purely technical, and make a recommendation on how to proceed.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Barclays Bank PLC were in advanced negotiations regarding the potential merger of their respective retail, corporate and offshore banking operations in the Caribbean. Currently there are four systems in operation in the region. All are carry-overs from the pre-merger operation of the bank. Each of the systems has different pros and cons consisting of degree of fit with the organization strategy, likely impact on organizational culture, and functionality. As part of the effort to standardize practices across the organization, a choice for one standard operating system must be made. This case may be taught on a stand alone basis or in combination with any of four additional cases that deal with various functional issues regarding the actual merger and integration. The four additional cases deal are: CIBC-Barclays: Should Their Caribbean Operations be Merged?, product 9B04M067; Harmonization of Compensation and Benefits for FirstCaribbean Bank, product 9B04C053; CIBC-Barclays: Accounting for Their Merger, product 9B04B022 and Note on Banking in the Caribbean, product 9B05M015.

Paybox.net AG was the world's first mass-marketable mobile payment system. Launched in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom, it had been steadily losing ground. The company's founder, and architect of the technology underlying Paybox, must decide if his product has a future, and if so, what the market strategy should be.

Blue Titanium is a strategy boutique that provides consulting to senior management and specializes in competitive intelligence. The founder of the company is fine-tuning his strategic plan and has to decide whether the selection of the company's Web server software and hardware should be decided as part of the company's strategy or to leave the selection to the chief technology officer.

Lulu.com is an e-commerce company that distributes content for book authors, video producers, calendar designers and other intellectual property creators that can be captured in digital formats. At this time, Lulu.com has developed a successful niche market in print-on-demand books within the United States. However, the vision of its founder is much larger. The president is faced with the strategic dilemma of whether to expand Lulu.com's product offerings or to focus on internal operations for the next six to 12 months.

IIF (Institute of International Finance) was eight months into the customized development of a customer relationship management system (CRM) by a small software development firm, QuaTeams. IIF, a member organization, wants to replace their current CRM, an Access database, by integrating member information from different departments: economic research, membership, events and finance. In addition, they want to be able to handle the growing number of members and track the interactions between their staff and their membership. With two months to go before the scheduled launch, both sides must make decisions to overcome the remaining technical hurdles they have with the database and security. The IIF must also consider implementation issues and think of creative ways that the customer relationship management system can be used once the system is operational. The objective of the case is to introduce students to the development of a custom CRM and how the process of developing and implementing a CRM can change the way an organization deals with its customers.

In 1998, Metropolitan Life's first vice president of Interactive Commerce faced a plethora of opportunities, challenges, and decisions in charting MetLife's strategy for e-commerce. He wanted to move quickly into transacting Web-based commerce, but he had to consider executive support, infrastructure requirements, possibly disenfranchising the sales force, fast-moving competitors, and the frenzied rate of technology change. The case covers almost all e-commerce start-up issues, but from the perspective of a large, established bricks and mortar business. (A 19-minute video is available for purchase with this case.)

The general manager of a janitorial wholesaling firm, Champion Products, is faced with a resignation letter from the company's network administrator and systems programmer. The general manager would not be disappointed to see the network administrator and his poor attitude leave the firm, but he wondered how easy it would be to replace him, particularly in the wake of the company's recent acquisition ISG Products. The general manager must decide whether to negotiate better terms with the network administrator or let him go.

Meyers Norris Penny is one of the leading chartered accountancy and business advisory firms in Canada. The vice-president of technology must decide whether to replace the company's practice management system or continue to upgrade the system as needs arise. The system has performed well, has stable hardware and software and staff are familiar and satisfied with using the system, however, he must consider the company's need to be innovative and proactive to maintain the firm's competitive advantage.

ZS Associates is a consulting company with offices in the United States, Europe and plans to establish an office in Canada. The manager of scheduling realizes that the company's scheduling system would not be able to keep up with the needs of the firm. The current system tracks the consultant's skills and their assignments to various projects. An MBA student working as an intern with the firm must provide a recommendation whether to develop software in-house, have new software custom built externally or purchase off-the-shelf software. He must analyse the options while considering the growth needs of the firm, features required in the software and cost.

Ji'nan Broadcasting Corporation is a public television broadcaster in one of China's provinces. The company is working on a new market opportunity to provide data and voice telecommunication services to the majority of the province's businesses and inhabitants. Currently, no data services are provided in this province and only one competitor offers voice services. The project is behind schedule, over budget and under specification. The project manager must decide which steps to take next in order for the project to succeed.

Ji'nan Broadcasting Corporation, Shandong province's public broadcaster, is entering the data and voice transmission markets. The company is preparing for an initial public offering in 2005 and must show strong, positive growth. The most likely source of that growth is expected to come from Shandong's under-served business sector. Currently, no data services are available and only one company provides voice services. The data and voice project's scope indicates that multiple vendors might be needed. For an upcoming meeting with Nortel Network's account sales manager, the project manager must provide recommendations on vendors, equipment and network specification options.

WaveRider Communications, Inc. was a Toronto-based company with a mission to become the leader in global wireless technology by developing, selling and supporting products that enabled wireless Internet service providers. It recently launched market its Last Mile Solution, offering Internet service providers the opportunity to provide wireless Internet access at broadband speeds in the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz spectrum. The wireless Internet access industry was relatively untapped and WaveRider's vice-president of marketing wondered whether the company, as it started its growth phase, should seek an alliance with a competing technology company. To determine the feasibility of this idea, he needed to classify the competition, review the customer barriers and evaluate which technology was the best fit.

The Canadian firearms program initially was established to set up a shared database. However, increasing costs of the firearms program is a concern for a number of Canadians. Should the federal government continue with the program, de-escalate or cancel the program. The case requires students to simultaneously evaluate the issues of the database design, software outsourcing, IS project management and change management. It can also be used to cover cost analysis, and political influences in decision-making.

The Education Store reviewed and provided sales of educational software for children in kindergarten to grade 12. The store took its direction from the local board of education and functioned with the administrative system of the school board but operated independently and was relatively free to make day-to-day decisions. The manager of the Education Store felt the existing database no longer kept up with the store's needs. A database designer had two weeks to analyze the store's requirements and develop a prototype. From the information he had, he wondered whether this task was an upgrade or a complete redesign. He must also look at a number of design issues, and who would ultimately maintain the database.

In teams of four to six people, each team works to develop a structure using building blocks. Various alterations to the terms of the assignment are made as the exercise unfolds, simulating the unpredictability of information systems development. Difference in the technology available to teams (both in terms of amount and type) simulate the challenge of differences in technology resources and later the challenge of integration, even with standard and simple technology.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Shanghai branch has successfully launched its Internet-based private banking service. The vice director of e-banking felt that the project was a success in terms of schedule and quality, and he needed to present his experiences and lessons learned to senior management. Of particular importance were the e-banking system’s benefits to users, the consumer profile, impacts on the bank’s performance, and factors influencing the effective implementation of the system.

Xerox (Hong Kong) had implemented two IT projects. Critical Business Information was being rolled out by the sales and marketing department for sales activity management. While the director of office systems operations was encouraged by the improvement in the quality of information and its usefulness in planning and reporting sales activities, he also realized that significant effort would be required for Xerox (Hong Kong) to fully embrace the digital management system. This is a follow-up to Xerox (Hong Kong): Sales Activity Management Process (A), case 9A99E015.

Canadian Tire Corporation consists of five main business groups: a large retail chain providing automotive parts, sports and leisure and home products; a financial division; a petroleum division; a specialty automotive parts division; and a retailer of casual and work wear clothing. The information technology group is faced with developing an implementation plan for the development of a business intelligence infrastructure and business capability at Canadian Tire Retail. Concurrent to this initiative is the development and implementation of an information technology strategy for Canadian Tire Corporation, which places a number of programs on the priority list, with business intelligence seen as a high priority item for which the organization can score some quick win business success.

Canadian Tire's information warehouse has become the victim of its own success. Both the end-user and IT communities have become increasingly frustrated with interruptions in service. The data architect for the warehouse needs to decide what needs to be met, in what priority, and with what programs.

As part of General Motors' overall strategy to standardize systems across GM's global operations, GM planned to implement a new timekeeping information system throughout GM plants in Canada. A common timekeeping system could increase plant efficiency, standardize reporting for headquarters, and facilitate productivity benchmarking across North America. Existing GM Canada timekeeping practices differed considerably within Canada and with U.S. operations, however, and Canadian resistance was threatening system implementation.

Cisco is the world's largest, and leading manufacturer and distributor of routers and switches. In order to achieve this position, it has adopted an aggressive growth strategy, acquiring companies, their employees, and new employees at a rate of 250 to 300 employees per month. The Cisco Employee Connection (CEC), a corporate intranet, is the primary means by which new employees are absorbed and acculturated. The CEC is also the principal means of interaction for the multi-functional work team approach Cisco employs. This case critically assesses this approach to scaling an organization, and the extent to which it can be maintained and transferred.

Susheel Gupta is a lawyer and federal prosecutor with the Canadian Department of Justice, specializing in cybercrime. In this lively 20-minute slide/video combination that is directed toward an audience of senior business managers, Mr. Gupta answers seven questions: 1) Are you safe? 2) What is computer crime? 3) Why is computer crime occurring? 4) How much computer crime occurs in Canada? 5) Is this just a fad? 6) What are the different categories of computer crime? 7) What are the biggest threats to corporate computer security? This video may be used alone or in conjunction with other case studies on computer security or other readings. (VHS format only.)

The general manager of BookMart, a major online book, movie and CD store was struggling to manage a serious breach of the company's information systems, which jeopardized both the company's reputation and its ability to provide service to its customers. He must develop an immediate plan to address the security breach internally; how to communicate the situation to customers and the media and develop a long term plan that will minimize the risk against possible future attacks. The supplement A Hacker Attack: An e-Commerce Nightmare, product 9B05E003 looks at the general manager's short and long term plans.

BookMart has a breach in the company's information systems. In this supplement to A Hacker Attack: An e-Commerce Nightmare, product 9B05E002, the general manager has to develop immediate and long term plans to deal with the situation.

DoubleClick Inc., with global headquarters in New York City and over 30 offices around the world, was a leading provider of comprehensive Internet advertising solutions for marketers and Web publishers. It combined technology, media and data expertise to centralize planning, execution, control, tracking and reporting for online media companies. DoubleClick was able to track Internet-users' surfing habits (but not the surfers' identities) allowing it to personalize ads for specific market groups. When DoubleClick announced it was merging with Abacus Direct, a direct marketing company with a database of consumer names, addresses and retail purchasing habits of 90 per cent of American households, it raised many privacy-related questions and concerns. Several Internet privacy activists had filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission after being informed by media sources that DoubleClick had the ability to divulge a person's identity by merging the databases of the two companies and matching the information in cookies with a surfer's profile. The president of DoubleClick was confident that its internal practices were sound, but he wondered if they would placate advertising clients afraid of consumer backlash, the concerns of Internet surfers and the company's investors.

Google is a very popular Internet search engine firm. The company has just announced the launch of Gmail, a free, Web-based e-mail service that allows users up to one gigabyte of storage capacity, more than 100 times that offered by other free services from competitors. In return for free e-mail, Gmail would scan its users' e-mail with the goal of delivering targeted ads. Immediately, privacy groups denounced Google's plans.

Tandesic Corporation was founded by three entrepreneurs to develop customer relationship management solutions. Funded at the height of the Internet bubble with plans for an initial public offering, the company has discovered that its core software product is undifferentiated and constrained by changes in technology. Faced with a financing gap and with less than 12 months venture capital funding remaining, a new chief executive officer is installed. The new chief executive officer must analyse four options: re-write the software product, sell the company, close it down or refocus. He wonders if he has identified all of the challenges facing the company as he decides on the direction the company must go.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had implemented word recognition software, Assentor, in its U.S. brokerage arm to ensure its employees were not acting inappropriately in their dealings with customers and to protect company systems from viruses. This software scanned e-mails for flagged business words and archived the e-mails in a central database. The manager of compliance at CIBC's head office in Toronto, found that the decision to implement the Assentor software was much easier than deciding what to do in the event the software found something improper. Issues related to company ethics and employee privacy were raised. Acknowledging that occasional personal e-mails would be sent and received, he wondered what the legal ramifications would be if a manager found out about a private situation because Assentor had found a flagged word in a personal e-mail. He felt that clear communication with and upfront understanding from employees would help prevent negative impressions of this process so he had to determine the best way to inform employees about the e-mail scanning while enforcing CIBC's e-mail policy.

Central University has developed a highly successful Executive MBA Program. Its closest competitor, State University, has aggressively responded, to the point of registering the internet domain name www.centralmba.com and meta-tagging the State University Executive MBA home page with this domain name. The associate dean of programs at Central must decide what course of action to take. The case describes the domain name registration process, explains meta-tagging, and raises a number of ethical, marketing, and information management issues.

An analyst at Harrison, Young, Pesonen, and Newell, Inc. had developed the media plan for a discount long distance telephone carrier (Super-Tel) and was supervising its execution. At the start of week eight of the twelve-week direct response television campaign she was monitoring customer response data from the telemarketing contractor in order to judge the performance of the advertising plan, with the objective of making adjustments to improve the plan. The analyst hoped to fine-tune the final weeks of advertising in order to maximize the number of customer orders received by Super-tel, while minimizing the costs of obtaining those orders. Could she use a decision support system to solve this problem. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A98E028.)

The sales director of Xerox (Hong Kong) has a vision to transform sales force management processes which would require radical changes to both the organization and the information technology infrastructure. The design includes a company-wide database to be available to the sales force by remote access through Intranet/Internet. From this database the sales force could manage their territory using notebook computers while travelling, working at client sites, sitting in meetings, or talking on the phone. At the time of sale, they could check inventory, quote prices, notify delivery or service schedules, and make billing arrangements. Successful implementation of the plan requires the sales director to overcome financial constraints, ingrained habits, traditional cultural values, an inadequate information technology infrastructure, and the effects of the change beyond the sales organization. The purpose of this case is to present the challenges of planning and implementing a major technology initiative in a cross-cultural setting. The student is expected to outline an implementation plan. A (B) case is available as a follow-up, case 9B00E002.